Crude anti-accretion additive from petroleum coke distillate

Abstract

The adherence of crude oil to metal surfaces (accretion) during well drilling in the Orinoco Oil Belt (Venezuela) has led to the common use of lubricants in water-based drilling fluid. However, research is currently being carried out to also add a surfactant agent to the drilling fluid to mitigate this problem. The present investigation studied at laboratory level the petroleum coke’s distillate use (CD) and its surfactant (CDS) for this purpose. Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy of both distillates exhibit that both fluids showed common spectra of surfactant agents. Likewise, its addition to a viscoelastic polymeric fluid contaminated with oil and petrolized sand brought the physical properties closer to the uncontaminated fluid (blank) values. When both fluids were studied as friction reducing agents (COF), they showed good capacity, reaching values associated with oil-based fluids. As accretion reducing agents, fluids with CDS and CD at 1% concentration showed better performance than a commercial additive from a service company. Statistically, it was shown that there is no statistically significant difference between the 2% and 3% CDS additive, so the recommended concentration is 2% CDS.